Marc Bergevin was criticized for many decisions during his tenure as the Montreal Canadiens' GM. Still, he made an excellent move by deciding not to match the Carolina Hurricanes’ offer sheet to Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
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Four seasons later, the Finnish center is still in Raleigh, but he’s currently skating on the Hurricanes’ fourth line. He was on the ice for much longer in the first round, against the New Jersey Devils, skating for over 18 minutes twice.
In the last three games of the Canes’ second-round series with the Washington Capitals, he has spent less than 13 minutes on the ice. He has registered three assists in nine playoff games this postseason, one of which came on the man-advantage.
The Hurricanes poached Kotkaniemi from the Canadiens during the 2021 offseason, signing him to a $6.1 M offer sheet with a $20 signing bonus, a wink to the Canadiens’ failed maneuver to sign Sebastian Aho.
Before that contract expired, Carolina signed him to an eight-year extension with a $4,820,000 cap hit, and the team and player implicitly admitted that the offer sheet was overinflated.
He’s now in the third year of the eight-year pact, and he’s not in Rod Brind’Amour’s good books. Every year, he seems to be in trade rumours, but the length of his contract is somewhat prohibitive for a player who has never put up more than 43 points in a season. This season, in 78 games, he was limited to 33 points.
While not matching the offer sheet was the right call, drafting him in the first place was a mistake. The Canadiens were desperate for a quality center. They decided to draft for need rather than for best player available, picking Kotkaniemi ahead of Brady Tkachuk (who went fourth overall to the Ottawa Senators) and Quinn Hughes (who was picked seventh overall by the Vancouver Canucks).
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